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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28425864">Witnessed</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kintatsujo/pseuds/Kintatsujo'>Kintatsujo</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, I like thinking abt NPCs in games, frankly it's mostly NPC centric, viewing the plot from outside</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 03:35:18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,590</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28425864</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kintatsujo/pseuds/Kintatsujo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The news would indeed travel fast once Calamity Ganon was defeated and Hyrule Castle was free once more.  After all, it happened right in the middle of Hyrule Field.</p><p>Or: where were you when a giant monster pig came out of Hyrule Castle and got its ass kicked by two kids and a horse?  (...more serious than that sounds)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Impa &amp; Zelda (Legend of Zelda), Link &amp; Zelda (Legend of Zelda), Prince Sidon &amp; Zelda</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>51</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Witnessed</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Shout out to my older brother for indulging my sudden curiosity about how well various people would be able to see the battle with Dark Beast Ganon from points around Hyrule by going around taking screenshots because I had things I was supposed to be doing and he didn't.  Eventually there should be art (in particular since I promised to draw some Moblins and Bokoblins watching the throwdown), but right now there's this.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Riverside Stable was the closest settlement to where it happened. </p><p>Gotter had been having a fairly good week if he was being honest. The odd beautiful lad who'd impossibly brought him the cookbook from Hyrule Castle had left him an extra tip of fifty rupees and had even made a meal for him the night before stabling his big brown mare and heading back to the castle on foot. </p><p>It had included a recipe the notes in the cookbook had described as Princess Zelda's favorite. Link- the young man- was already an exceptional cook in his own right, so it had been a particularly wondrous capper to an already excellent meal. </p><p>He hoped Link defied the odds a second time and came back to claim his horse again. "Take good care of her," he'd said in zorana sign language. "If I don't come back within a month, she belongs to the stables." Gotter would be lying if he claimed he wasn't concerned. </p><p>So a good week so far, but not a great one. Nobody liked hearing that someone expected they might die. </p><p>He was taking the selfsame mare, Epona, for a trot at the foot of Whistling Hill when she suddenly reared, wrenching free of his gentle grasp, and charged for the top of the hill with a whicker and whinny. Gotter broke into a chase after her, horrified--he wasn't a runner, just gentle with horses--and Epona was galloping like she'd been called.  There were stalkers over that way. </p><p>He reached the crest of the hill when there was a terrific explosion of sound, and as Gotter regained his feet from stumbling he saw it. Swirling and black and glowing unnaturally, a storm of malice that had circled the castle for months now moved as though alive towards Hyrule Field, and as it coalesced Epona charged as if to meet it. </p><p>A shining mote of light followed after, descending near the chestnut mare and-</p><p>Gotter stared, cursing his poor eyesight. That couldn't be Link, could it? But as he felt more than heard the other folk of Riverside Stable join his side it seemed to be so, because Ember squinted and asked, "isn't that the boy who stabled that horse just the other day?" </p><p>The malice was a storm and then it was a boar, bigger than the stable building, and Link was riding around it in a tight circle firing shining arrows at circles of light as they appeared across its sides and belly. </p><p>They all stood there in the trees on Whistling Hill and watched as a seam opened in its face and Link zipped impossibly into the air, firing one last shot at a horrifying teaming mass of eyes- </p><p>And the luminescent girl escaped, and the boar stood no chance after that. </p><p>Gotter was running again and he couldn't feel the burning in his legs. They were speaking to each other and there was no hearing it, but that wasn't what Gotter cared about--what Gotter cared about was that this could only be one girl, and Link was embracing her and gently lifting her to Epona's back. </p><p>"Oi! Oiiii! Over heeeere!!" </p><p>Ember gave them two soft beds for as long as they needed them and free. "I can pay for it," Link said in soft hylian. </p><p>"I know you can, lad," Ember said, "but after what you two seem to have done neither of you should." </p><p>Gotter tapped the girl gently on the shoulder to get her attention. "You're her, aren't you?" he asked. "The lost princess Zelda." </p><p>She stared at him for a moment, wide eyed and unsure. "I-- I suppose there's no denying it after what you've just witnessed," she said, and looked away as if ashamed. As if <em> ashamed. </em> </p><p>"I only ask," Gotter assured her, "because I've made you some fruitcake because the cookbook Link rescued called it your favorite, and I'd be ever so embarrassed if you were someone else entirely." </p><p>And for the first time since emerging from the belly of that terrible beast, the poor lovely girl burst into tears. </p><p>Beedle arrived sometime that evening, much shaken by seeing it from the road, and when Gotter passed on what happened seemed shaken even worse.  “I was going to have someone steal out of his <em> inventory </em>,” he muttered.</p><p>The Zora knew that Link was fighting well before the sky turned red, because Vah Ruta fired on the castle. They had to watch the fight from Upland Zorana but they had time to get there. </p><p>Prince Sidon and King Dorephan knew exactly what was happening. Sidon met Link and Zelda at Riverside Stable, lent speed by the waterways. The residents and regulars of Riverside were much surprised--but not quite as much as Zelda, who even though she’d seen Sidon through Link’s journey was left reeling at the sheer size of the man who hadn't come up to her knee when last she'd met him personally. </p><p>"Sidon you grew UP," she said, and she said it a fair number of times, too.</p><p>The folk of Kakariko had a fairly good idea what had happened, because they had two decent places to watch from: by the old shrine above the village and from the entrance where the road broke. Impa watched from the latter position, seated on a palanquin, but she'd ordered Cado to ride that way with Paya before Zelda's feet touched the ground. </p><p>They didn't know exactly what happened until a few days later, when Paya and Cado returned with Link and Zelda in tow, but Impa had a pretty good idea. </p><p>It was good to see her princess again. Impa felt like she could breathe for the first time in a century. </p><p>Purah's only vantage point of the fight was infuriatingly poor even after she'd gotten Simon to help her climb the tower roof, but she knew Link had finally gone to face Ganon by the way the sky turned blood moon red in the middle of the day. </p><p>All she could see was some dark tendrils of power over the mountains. So frustrating! </p><p>The other residents of Hateno had a slightly better view, being a little closer, but no context for the dark shape they could see moving around Hyrule Field and then dying. By the time that Link returned to his house, Zelda in tow to see Purah, they had only heard rumors that the lost princess was saved, from travelers with fewer stops than Link and Zelda had on the way. </p><p>But it took over two months before anyone realized the young stranger who'd bought the old soldier's house had anything to do with it, and Zelda wasn't dressed like a sacred princess anymore. </p><p>The Rito knew SOMETHING was going on, because of a Divine Beast firing a laser from above their heads (much like the Zora), but even though the whole town flew to watch from where Vah Medoh sat, they still had no idea what had happened until the first rumors hit Rito Stable. </p><p>The gossip had rather transformed the narrative at that point and Zelda had metamorphosed with words into Hylia herself rather than a vessel, or into one of the three goddesses, or into an angel messenger, or into a ghost, but Teba and Kass, at least, weren't shocked to hear Link had something to do with it once that detail finally filtered through. </p><p>The village at large never did quite get clarification that Link was in fact himself and not his own descendant even after Zelda tried to correct the misunderstanding. Link thought it was very funny and didn't help.</p><p>Branli, admirer of the Rito, had one of the best views of the fight from Ridgeland Tower and didn't appreciate it at all. </p><p>Pikango, on the road, had one of the worst views and appreciated it immensely.</p><p>The folk of Dueling Peaks Stable only knew something was happening from the red sky and--more importantly-- from the way Hino screamed constantly until the fight was over.  But he was never plagued by a Blood Moon again, and later he’d describe the nightmarish experience as the best thing that had ever happened to him.</p><p>Robbie couldn't see a goddess damned thing and didn't even know Link fought Ganon til Granté came tearing in to pass on the news as it hit Tarrey Town, because Robbie lived in Akkala and there was a thunderstorm that day. </p><p>A certain Lynel living in the cliffs above Lurelin saw the whole thing fairly well, and for the first time in his many lives felt a chill of fear--because the first thing he thought of was his last death before the last blood moon. </p><p>The folk of Goron City saw what little they did because of a mad dash up Death Mountain when Vah Rudania fired.  They still held the first real party, because Gorons will take most excuses.</p><p>Gerudo Town was one of the last places to hear quite what had happened, despite seeing Vah Nabooris act. It was low, it was isolated from the rest of Hyrule, and there was half the desert and the Gerudo Highlands in the way.  It still only took a few weeks for the whispers to begin. Things were only finally confirmed when Zelda arrived to pay her respects. </p><p>Probably the actual best view-- not too far and not too close and at a good angle-- was from the top room in the Temple of Time.  But the only person to watch from there was a dead man.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Ouch.  OUCH.  Ouch.  I honestly don't know how strong I consider this ending but I could have gone on for much longer and it needed to end SOMEWHERE; the adventurer Benny practically had a front row seat; the treasure hunting kids had a number of different potential amazing views, I could have spent ages talking about the different Bokoblin camps on the Great Plateau.  Sometimes writing is about stopping yourself.</p><p>It is absolutely canon that Gotter could potentially make Zelda her favorite dessert the night Link and she defeat Ganon and ffs she deserves it, poor baby, she's had a rough century, we've all had a rough year, Zelda gets some cake.</p><p>Hino is the guy at Dueling Peaks Stable who says he's studying the Blood Moon.  The thing is that I can't imagine he's had a lot of success because he starts acting strange and wild whenever it's going.</p><p>The Lynel by Lurelin's view isn't the BEST view a Lynel would have but we have a soft spot for that one because he's the first Lynel that any of us out of the three people sharing our Switch ran into- the same brother who did the screenshot collecting, who ran into him in the rain, couldn't tell what he was at first, yelled "Oh it's a LYNEL" and jumped off the cliff to get away just AS where he'd been got hit with shock arrows. Right after that we mistook Kass for a Lynel, which was oddly not the last time that happened.</p><p>I couldn't actually remember Cado's name when I originally wrote this so he was just named in his two mentions as [chicken man].  Remember that trick next time you need a placeholder.</p><p>I obviously get super invested in Breath of the Wild's NPCs, although ironically this was spurred by playing Age of Calamity and the fact that Age of Calamity's feelsy goodness actually makes parts of Breath of the Wild itself more sharply felt for me.  I think it's a good complement to BotW that way.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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